A group of seven-figure Amazon sellers is calling for a one-day boycott of Amazon advertising on April 15, 2026 in response to recent changes that sellers say are draining working capital from their businesses at an already difficult time.
The boycott is being organized by Million Dollar Sellers co-founder Eugene Khayman, who runs a community of over 800 sellers doing a combined $15B in annual revenue on Amazon. Sellers participating in the event plan to turn off all Amazon ad spend for one day and post screenshots to prove their zero spend.
The event is in response to a few recent changes by Amazon including:
- Payout Delays – Starting March 12th, Amazon moved to holding seller funds for seven days after the customer's delivery date, which equates to 10-15 day delays for sellers on a two-week payout cycle.
- 3.5% Fulfillment Surcharges – Amazon recently added a new fuel surcharge for FBA sellers, on top of the FBA fee increase that took effect in January.
- Ad costs deducted from proceeds, not billed to cards. Starting April 15th, Amazon will automatically deduct advertising costs from sellers' retail proceeds before paying out, rather than charging them to a credit or debit card — a change that eliminates a working capital buffer for sellers who previously floated ad spend on credit, and ultimately ends up costing sellers a few percentage points higher in ad cost spend, since they're losing their credit card reward points or cash back on the purchases.
I support the message, but will a one day boycott make a difference? And is pausing ad spend, which has a negative impact on the sellers themselves, the best way to send that message to Amazon?
Jon Elder, one of the first 25 founding members of Million Dollar Sellers, called the boycott “statistically insignificant” and says he feels bad for any brand taking part in this “nonsense.” He says this will happen:
“Amazon will ding your rankings, and you will have to scrape them back in the coming months. Your competitors will lock in the cheaper bids, and you will regret ever ‘going against the man.' Secondly, Amazon is going to know who participated in this boycott. Not only can they see you turning off your ad spend, but they will know because they are in the MDS group, spying on brands. Punishment will come.”
His advice is to instead “expand off-Amazon aggressively” by targeting Walmart, TikTok, and Shopify — which is sound advice in my opinion.